Thursday Thoughts

Just a few items to cover as we gear up for another intense weekend at the Fifth of Four Majors™:

Fourball Finale - Happy times at Casa Simpson last night as we watched our favorite Mid-Am cruise to victory:

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball drew 128 teams comprised by all

And the winner is...FedEx.

types of combinations: teens, college players, old college roommates and teammates, brothers, fathers and sons, and neighbors. 

In the end, it was a couple of salty, experienced veterans who prevailed, as former Walker Cup teammates Nathan Smith and Todd White rolled to a 7-and-5 triumph Wednesday over North Carolinians Sherrill Britt and Greg Earnhardt to capture this inaugural two-man championship. The margin of victory was the largest of any of the 31 matches played at Olympic Club’s Lake Course this week. 

Smith, a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, looked down at the beautiful shiny silver trophy in front of him, with nary a single name on it, and started to realize that he and White forever will be the first champions in an event that both players believe will be highly successful.

Kind of like when I won the inaugural Ridge Cup last year...  well, perhaps not like that at all...But I've got a question for the USGA?  That's an impressive, big honkin' trophy you gave to the lads, but there's one trophy and there's twp of them... seems like they're gonna have to FedEx it back and forth between Pittsburgh and South Carolina.  Couldn't was have popped for two?  The Fox check cleared, no?

Fox seemed even more dreadful yesterday, or maybe I was already tired of them...Shack is in Ponte Vedra Beach where Fox Sports 1 is nowhere to be found (insert your own voluntary leave joke):

I wasn't able to view the USGA-Fox Sports debut as the much beloved Mayo Clinic Courtyard Ponte Vedra is equipped with shower rails, easy oxygen tank access to rooms and drool cups to go with your bedpans. But no FS1 and only Golf Channel in the lobby where the nightly motorscooter races can be quite exciting. 

However, I heard anecdotes from many of you. My collection of notes were capped off by the day two episode where the final was tape-delayed and Fox's signal was lost for a time. 

While this was sure to be a rough start and a lot of people worked hard on the telecast, the beginning to fresh and innovative golf broadcasting appears to have been a struggle.

If you want a sneak peak of the high points, Shack links to video of this Corey Pavin interview that I referenced yesterday, as well as their version of ProTracer following the divot.  And since he was in the isolation cell that is the PVB Marriott, he passes on this feedback he's received from readers:

Regarding the day one telecast, many were shocked that it took nearly one hour and forty minutes to see Holly Sonders, who then was seen very little beyond her first interview.

The Greg Norman-Joe Buck lead team did not inspire either, apparently discussing one player's calves, confusing names and making references to the "long week" (wait until they do 8 hours a day on the U.S. Open weekends).

Nathan Smith, part of the eventual winning and building a legendary amateur golf resume, didn't get much love or backstory told, I'm told.

For all of this, our friends at Nielsen say Fox Sports 1 earned a .058 (67,000 viewer average).Golf Channel's Live From during the same window and discussing the all important Tuesday proceedings at The Players nearly doubled that with a .095 rating.

It's a classic good news/bad news tale... the former being that we'll get expanded coverage, the latter being the nature of said coverage.  

Shack also gives them some grief for showing the final on tape delay after the USGA had tweeted the results, but this Luddite can live with that....and it allowed them to pick up where they left off after they lost the broadcast feed for twenty minutes.  I'd like to hope they'll get better by Chambers Bay, but then again I also haven't given up the dream of playing shortstop for my Yankees.

And who was that androgynous woman in the studio who painfully recounted the technical difficulties?  You might consider losing her, Fox, though I'm glad to know that Lydia Ko's glasses found a good home.

That Is Cricket - We love when the powers that be show an appreciation for historic golf venues, so kudos for this choice:

The 18th at the Wissahickon Course.

Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. – The Champions Tour announced today that the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship, one of five major championships on the Champions Tour schedule, will head to The Philadelphia Cricket Club in 2016 for the first time. Defending champion Bernhard Langer made the announcement during Golf Channel’s Morning Drive show live from THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass this morning.

Shack has this background and praise:

The Senior Players has been to some really stellar places in recent years (Fox Chapel, Baltimore CC) and now it'll be going to Philadelphia Cricket Club in 2016. The club's Wissahickon course, restored by architect Keith Foster with Dan Meersman and his grounds team has long been one of the most-in-need A.W. Tillinghast designs. 

All reviews have been positive, making the PGA Tour's Senior Players grab impressive considering that the PGA of America is thought to be very much a fan of the facility too. Hopefully this will be the beginning of several events at this important and influential early American club.

The PGA of America is staging their club pro championship there later this summer, so we'll get a look at the restoration then.

Ponte-Preview - It's been a pretty quiet week leading into the Players, no?  I mean, when the big story is Jim Furyk putting in sandals....:

So, this must be some new-fangled, sports psychologist idea to keep the player relaxed, right?  errr, not so much:

We asked Jim about it, hoping he'd share some veteran wisdom. He, however, laughed it off. "This is a home game. I'm just hanging out."

As for Tiger, he got into the spirit of things:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Tiger Woods' biggest reaction on Wednesday had

nothing to do with one of his own shots. After hitting to 15 feet on TPC Sawgrass' 17th, he stepped aside and watched as caddie Joe LaCava took a crack at one of golf's most famous holes. 

The ball flight wasn't as pretty or as straight, but Woods' caddie found the back-right portion of the island green. It drew a loud cheer from the crowd and a huge smile and high-five from his boss.

Glad he's having fun out there... But see how you feel about Martin Dempster, who covers the golf beat for The Scotsman, taking our Tiger to the woodshed:

It was bad enough that the American chose the opening day of the event in San Francisco to announce his “busy summer” schedule, an announcement obviously timed to grab the headlines when Woods couldn't do so with a performance due the fact he didn't qualify on this occasion for a tournament he’d won three times.

But to then come out on Sunday with a statement confirming that he’d split up with Lindsey Vonn, the Olympic skier, proved once and for all that Woods is one of those horrible “look-at-me” individuals that can’t seem to swallow the thought of anyone else being in the limelight.

As we feared, it was asking too much for Woods to confirm that he had, in fact, turned over a new leaf. That the smiling Tiger, who was hugging here, there and everywhere on the practice area at Augusta National last month, was the one that we’d be seeing from now on.

 Really?  It no doubt reminds of Tiger's Ponte Vedra statement the Wednesday of the Match Play back in 2010, you know, after the ill-fated fire hydrant.  That I found incredibly inappropriate timing, though I never understood why Commissioner Ratched didn't simply tell Tiger that he'd make the Ponte Vedra Castle Clubhouse available on any Monday.  These announcements seem rather insignificant to me, but perhaps Dempster has better passive-aggressive radar than I...